Is Obama Visit to France to Discuss a Formal Union of USA and the EU?

[Cromag]

According to Streit Council for a Union of Democracies website, "Uniting democracies has been the key international political trend of the last hundred years Understanding this trend and enabling it to continue is the key to world political development"

June 7th, 2009
President Obama is currently visiting with French President Sarkozy. Could they be discussing the ideas in this PDF? Balladur and Sarkozy: The opening for a Union of the West

Philippe Nemo's What is the West? outlines a very strong criteria for justifying a unification of the West but claims the European Union and American Empire are "two well-intentioned but misguided ideas. In a sense, both are intended as a response to the need for a unified West, but both go about it in a fundamentally misguided way. The European Union, contemplating enlargement toward non-Western countries while neglecting at the same time to establish closer ties with Atlantic countries, despite sharing the same culture. The American Empire strive to unite the entire Western world, but to do this only under its own leadership with slight regard for others, treating them as satellites."

Review of Philippe Nemo's What is the West?
Weaving together political events, philosophical discoveries, religious movements, and innovations in science and technology, Philippe Nemo's book What is the West? lays out the factors that have influenced and shaped Western culture. In this volume, recently translated into English by Kenneth Casler with a forward by Michael Novak, the author argues that the contemporary conception of 'the West' is but a single cultural entity to which Western Europe and North America belong. Tracing the development of the West through six millennia, Nemo begins in the cities of Greece with scientific debate before taking the reader to Rome to witness the birth of humanism and private law. Examining the Papal Revolution next, the story of the West soon gives way to the rise of the liberal democracies and the universality of Western Culture. Before concluding, Nemo makes the case "For a Union of the West," falling into step with the idea of former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.
Click here to read more about Balladur's proposals.
For more on Balladur's Streit-Council-sponsored visit to Washington promote his ideas, follow these links:
Press Conference at the National Press Club
Meeting with the Council on Foreign Relations
Address at SAIS

Former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur's book "For a Union of the West between Europe and the United States" was just translated to English in February 2009 and is available through The Hoover Institute Stanford University

[Ice Goldberg]

Why Our Civilized Values Are Worth Defending

When asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi said, “I think it would be a good idea.” Much of the world’s envy towards the West is steeped with misinformation and fear projected right from the West with its’ deeds. These deeds are influenced by a collection of shared human needs and values. Philippe Nemo, Professor of Philosophy and the History of Political Ideas at the European School of Management, in his penetrating book, What is the West, questions “whether certain values in the West have achieved a universality that must be defended” from both external forces and from deterioration within (3). How á propos to explore this inquiry is during a time of much economic instability. How much longer can we continue our self-supported Ponzi scheme of buying our own debt before some foreseeable economic tragedy threatens the civilized nature of our existence? Such a tragedy seems impossible, but is it? In order to maintain our sovereignty from external and internal forces, we must clearly understand our motivations to successfully navigate through these icebergs of uncertainty. I believe some of these universal values to be the same ones a society must have in order to be civilized. Specifically, the values our founding fathers proclaim as unalienable rights in the United States Declaration of Independence, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These unalienable rights along with the Christian Eschatology and moral teachings of the Beatitudes are exactly what a society must value in order to be civilized and more importantly to continue existing as a sovereign civilized society.

A society that fails to value life would preclude being civilized by default; however, valuing “liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as unalienable rights requires some explanation. Carol Hamilton, in her online article, “The Surprising Origins and Meaning of the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’” asserts that "happiness is bound up with the civic virtues of courage, moderation, and justice. Because they are ‘civic virtues,’ not just personal attributes, they implicate the social aspect of eudaimonia. The pursuit of happiness, therefore, is not merely a matter of achieving individual pleasure. That is why Alexander Hamilton and other founders referred to ‘social
happiness.’" To reiterate, Dr. Hamilton is saying the ‘pursuit of happiness’ is best achieved when citizens are content with each other and their community is in harmony. Similarly we can surmise that our unalienable right to “liberty” comes from the Greek Miracle, in that “as a free person, with full and certain knowledge of what is lawful and unlawful the citizen assumes full responsibility for personal actions in society” (Nemo 11). In other words, civilized citizens are responsible for their individual freedoms and equality under the law
and do so cooperatively in the pursuit of “social happiness” or harmony in the community.

To ethically inspire “civic virtues” on the road to being civilized we need to look for universal entitlement to the rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and we can find this entitlement in our responsibility to each other as stated in the New Testament. The Sermon on the Mount makes the point stronger than anything before it --giving a universal entitlement to all-- in that “each person accept full responsibility and assume all
consequences for human suffering, even though that person is not the original cause” (Nemo 30). This period is the start of our journey down the road to being civilized because it breaks from self-centric, non-responsibility and includes all people regardless of stature in the community. We can build on this motivation for progress in the name of righteousness or from a secular and ethical perspective of becoming civilized. Either way we need a form of universal justice to move forward towards the goal of ending suffering with purpose and resolve.

Biblical ethics claims that compassion surpasses justice and that unlike Christian love, justice fulfills its obligations according to a set of limitations. Beyond presenting Christ’s rhetorical proficiencies, the Beatitudes go on to announce promises of an infinite reward and a new form of righteous justice called the “Kingdom of God” such as “blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven” being one of the eight Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10). It is this “infinity of love and the infinity of the Kingdom that escapes all human reckoning and control. As such, it breaks from the moral and legal traditions inherited from pagan antiquity” (Nemo 30-1). Nemo’s point is that these infinite and righteous concepts bestow the moral duty of Christians and even non Christians, to break the laws of the
establishment in the name of compassion and infinite love, in an effort to end human suffering. It took the coming of Christ to shake the foundations of the lawful systems of society in such a way as to even transform the concept of time as it had been viewed.

Eschatology is the driving force that ensures our civilized values remain sovereign. Our modern-day forward-moving concept of time was founded as A.D. when the “bible divorced itself from the serenity of pagan ethics and severed all ties with cyclical time and the notion of eternal return” (Nemo 34). Nemo is clearly asserting that Christianity breaks from the “nothing under the sun is new” belief, envisioning a day of reckoning for the acts of all humans. Where once we had the values of “an eye for an eye” to limit our vengeance we now find compassion and a devotion to ending the suffering of all mankind through the teachings of the gospel. The greatest merit no longer went to those who resolved problems in the community but those who created them! That is a paradigm shift. “The good life as conceived by Aristotle, no longer consisted of being an organic part of a just city. On the contrary, acceptance and support for the existing order of things was now the very essence of evil” (Nemo 36). Nemo is insisting the legal system of the Roman Empire was no longer acceptable if people were suffering from its cause and it was the Christian duty to expose these problems by example.

This legal dissension seems contradictory to the unalienable rights of social happiness and harmony espoused by our founding fathers, but the two opposing views work together with synergy towards a boundless justice. Contemporaries like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Mahatma Gandhi all participated directly in this principle of not only finding injustice but creating the problems that forced society to change,
including Nelson Mandela who said “In my country we go to prison first and then become President.” These are key distinctions in the motivation for the infinite progress of mankind as Nemo articulates, “Even when such created problems are resolved other individuals similarly possessed of infinite love and intolerant of human suffering, will create more problems and so on and so forth, as long as suffering exists in this world”
(Nemo 33). Put yet another way, the progress must involve Christian eschatology’s forward thinking values of linear time with its promise of a future that “requires active charity in the real world to accomplish its purpose” (Nemo 35). It is this urgent hunger for progress that insures the West’s superiority to competing nations by constantly progressing forward with urgency. The urgency comes from the anxiety of knowing people are suffering and we cannot just sit around and do nothing and still call ourselves civilized. We must do something to change the system that causes this while we are still alive to do it. “To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others” (Mandela).

How then do these values for a civilized society apply to a secular and diverse religious culture? Universally people have a need to improve on the quality of life for themselves if not humanity and constantly struggle in pursuit of this simple progress. In fact according to Maslow’s Theory on The Hierarchy of Needs, deprivation of the need for “self- actualization as well as physiological needs can cause neurosis and maladjustment. The satisfaction of those needs is the only treatment" (Maslow “Transcendence” 1). These psychological and self-actualizing needs are influenced by foundational moral teachings –of any religion– and are required for relief from our inherent narcissism which is more pervasive at the lower levels of the needs hierarchy. Ronald Inglehart, Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and Director of the World Values Survey is at the forefront of studying society values and their changing impact.

"The demand for religion should be far stronger among low-income nations than among rich ones; and among the less secure strata of society than among the affluent. We hypothesized that as a society moves past the early stages of industrialization, and life becomes less nasty, less brutish and longer, people tend to become more secular in their orientations. Analysis of data from societies around the world revealed that the extent to which people emphasize religion and engage in religious behavior could, indeed, be predicted with considerable accuracy from a society’s level of economic development and other indicators of human development" (Inglehart et al 4-5).

Basically, people in more developed societies do not have to value traditional Christian religion to be civilized. Inglehart’s findings support Maslow’s hierarchy by showing that the lower level needs such as the need for belonging –which religion and community fulfill–is emphasized more and correlates directly to ones level of prosperity and other indicators of human development like education and reason. It implies that higher level
needs are met with higher levels of prosperity and human development thereby deemphasizing traditional religion. Proving this further Prof Inglehart finds that “though established religious organizations have declined in most advanced industrial societies, we are not witnessing a decline in spiritual concerns but rather a redirection of them” (Inglehart “Globalization” 224). This also confirms Maslow’s Theory that the need for
religious belonging is inherent and its spirituality continues or still exists during self-actualization. We see this in a cultures transformation to a sort of universal utopianism in that a large part of society –especially the educated– believes in the principle lessons of a religion and having a moral compass but doesn’t necessarily believe in the traditions to the extent of even ruling out a supreme deity or Kingdom of God.

It is the internalization of these Christian eschatological morals that make the secular society civilized. “The most persuasive evidence about secularization in educated rich nations concerns values and behavior” (Inglehart et al 5). The predominant religious cultural traditions in any society are expected to leave a distinct imprint upon the contemporary moral beliefs and social attitudes that are widespread among the public. “If
secularization has occurred in post-industrial nations, then the influence of religious traditions can be expected to have faded” (Inglehart et al 14). Societies have learned the principles of these traditions and are applying them with less participation in organized denominational religion. In connecting the dots, it makes sense that the forward-thinking Christian principles which pull us out of Maslow’s lower level needs lead to a self-actualizing life of significance that is not focused on religious traditions but rather their concepts. “I think of the self-actualizing man not as an ordinary man with something added, but rather as the ordinary man with nothing taken away. The average man is a full human being with dampened and inhibited powers and capacities” (Maslow “Dominance” 91). People become more civilized when self-actualized and free from the
lower instincts of survival. They are able to act independently on their responsibility to others.

Some people say the Kingdom of God is a sort of circular fallacy but that is missing the point completely. “The old saying that ‘there are no atheists in foxholes’ reflects the fact that physical danger leads to a need for belief in a higher power” (Inglehart “Globalization” 224). Inglehart’s evidence clearly shows how the lower level
primal needs of religion are affected by external influences. The concept of Christ’s teaching in the Beatitudes has brought people to live in the higher forward-thinking levels of needs through their prosperity and education. It is not the concept of Christ’s divinity that is in question as much as understanding the message. Whether one believes it is of divine origin or profound wisdom in not the point. The moral teachings are self-evident
and the secularization of the messenger’s message gives a whole new meaning to the saying “Don’t shoot the messenger,” and I suspect it partly responsible for the messengers crucifixion whether he was of divine origin or not.

Although valuing unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with the eschatological Christian moral teachings of the Beatitudes may seem of concern to only a devout group of citizens, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about the continued sovereignty of our nation. It is the forward-thinking infinite progress of mankind that we are protecting because it is what motivates us to civility. It is Christian eschatology that motivates our urgent progress and ensures this civilized sovereignty. It is the unalienable rights that unify individual and social happiness allowing society and its dynamically changing definition of religion to coexist in harmony. It is the universal Christian right to infinite love and compassionate responsibility for each other that tells us to protect each other from the forces that conspire to diminish these values. To stand against a system that causes suffering. When Gandhi said "An eye for an eye only ends
up making the whole world blind” he was agreeing with Christian eschatology’s forward-thinking righteousness and saying that Western civilization “would be a good idea” probably meant that he believed we are guided in the right direction but not there yet. One day, if we continue to play our cards right, history may show that he was right.

Sources

Hamilton, Carol V. “The Surprising Origins and Meaning of the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’”
History News Network 28 Jan. 2007. .

Inglehart, Ronald. “Globalization and Postmodern Values” The Washington Quarterly
Winter 2000: 215-228.

Inglehart, Ronald, and Norris Pippa. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics
Worldwide Cambridge University Press; illustrated edition Sept. 27, 2004.

Mandela, Nelson. “Nelson Mandela Reflects on Working Toward Peace” Santa Clara
University - The Jesuit University in Silicon Valley: The Markkula Center for
Applied Ethics
Mandela/essay.html>.

Maslow, Abraham. Dominance, Self-Esteem, Self-Actualization: Germinal Papers of A.
H. Maslow (The A. H. Maslow series) Brooks/Cole Pub. Co (1973)

Maslow, Abraham. “Transpersonal Pioneers: Abraham Maslow” Institute of
Transpersonal Psychology .

Maslow, Abraham. “A Theory of Human Motivation” appeared in Psychological Review
(1943)
com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp>

St. Matthew, The Holy Bible New Testament Gospel of St. Matthew 5:3-10
“The Beatitudes“